So here we are about to start the SEVENTH year of this blog! Hard to believe it and boy, does time fly. Below I’ve compiled my list of the best and worst of 2017. As is typically the case, by the time it came to make this list things became a bit of a jumble and I decided to choose the movies that I had the strongest reaction to when I saw them. I don’t revisit movies often but anything in the Top 5 are films that I’d add to my collection.

As always, I’ve appreciated your feedback, your patronage, and your general presence in my blog. Even if you read this everyday but have never commented or made contact I can still tell you’ve been here and that means a lot. My readership and subscriptions leveled off a bit in early 2017 but picked up nicely in the second half of the yearand it’s all thanks to your word of mouth, likes, and shares. If you haven’t already, make sure to follow this blog, follow me on Twitter (@joemnmovieman), and like my Facebook page so you can help me continue spreading the news about The MN Movie Man.

Best Wishes to you and yours for a most Happy New Year!

~Joe (The MN Movie Man)

5. The Big Sick – while it didn’t exactly become ‘the little indie that could’ as expected, The Big Sick stuck around for a long time in theaters based on positive word of mouth alone and in Hollywood that kind of buzz is worth more than gold. Writer/star Kumail Nanjiani’s true story on how he met his future wife and, through a stressful series of events, his future in-laws is a wonderfully comic look at love and family. In our current political climate, it’s also a deft look at cultural stereotypes within the family structure of immigrants and how the second generations are cutting their own path toward the Great American Dream.

4. Blade Runner 2049 – A forward-thinking sequel to the futuristic 1982 cult classic, Blade Runner 2049 should have done much better at the box office and I’m still puzzled as to why this one fizzled so fast. Big, bold, and beautiful, I saw this one twice in theaters and could have gone a few more times had the fall not gotten so cramped. Director Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners, Enemy, Sicario), continues to be a force to be reckoned with and he gathered the best and brightest in front of and behind the camera to create a spectacular sci-fi epic. Special mention to Dutch breakout Sylvia Hoeks who gets my vote for Best Villain of 2017.

3. Phantom Thread – this one isn’t out in many theaters yet so my full review is pending but this late-breaking film quickly jumped to my Best of the Year list. I’ve been completely off the Paul Thomas Anderson bandwagon for the last few films (Inherent Vice was on my worst of list in 2015) but I’m applying for membership to his fan club after this strikingly gorgeous beautiful film he’s delivered. It’s rich on multiple levels, not only in the ornate fashions on display but in the deeply emotional performances from star Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln) and two strong female supporting characters Vicky Krieps and Lesley Manville (Maleficent). This one really knocked me over and blew my socks off…really sublime.

2. The Lost City of Z – Released in April 2017, you’d be forgiven if you’ve missed out on The Lost City of Z. It’s so very, very good that it’s more than a minor heartbreak that it didn’t get the proper attention when it arrived in theaters. I think the marketing from Amazon Studios really failed this film which should have been delayed to later in the fall for a more prestige release date. Based on the bestselling novel, The Lost City of Z is a haunting tale of adventure and obsession that has stuck with me ever since I saw it. The performances are stellar (who knew Pacific Rim’s Charlie Hunnam had it in him or that The Rover’s Robert Pattinson could be so compelling?) and director James Gray’s paces the film so well that the lengthy running time will surely fly by. Seek this one out at all costs – you’re missing something special!

1. Get Out – Comedian Jordan Peele’s directorial debut captured lightning in a bottle and has kept that energy going ever since its release almost a year ago. On its way to Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Screenplay (and perhaps one for Best Director?), Get Out is hands down the most original and entertaining film I saw throughout 2017. I missed the critics screening for this one so found myself paying for a mid-week showing several weeks after it came out. The reactions of the packed audience were but a ¼ of the fun to be had, I’ve watched it again at home and it works just as well. Peele masterfully commands our attention in this Stepford Wives-esque tale of a white girl bringing her black boyfriend home to meet her parents. Nothing is what it seems on their posh estate and the deeper we dive down Peele’s rabbit hole the more intriguing the picture becomes. Scary, funny, on message, and supremely timely, Get Out is the kind of authentic filmmaking that’s becoming a rarity in Hollywood. Just plain perfect.

5. Goodbye Christopher Robin – I love Winnie-the-Pooh. I did not love Goodbye Christopher Robin, a syrupy biopic on the man who created the lovable bear that lived in the Hundred-Acre Wood. According to the filmmakers, A.A. Milne and his wife (a woefully terrible Margot Robie, Suicide Squad) were largely absentee parents that wound up exploiting their only child’s imagination for his stuffed animals for financial gain. A late breaking and purely cinematic change of heart in Milne is the stuff of trite redemption stories but by the time it arrives the damage has extended too far into our consciousness.

4. mother! – Oh, how I was looking forward to this one. This is one movie that had all the cards stacked in its favor. An air of mystery, a celebrated director, a bankable movie star lead, and a supporting cast of solid actors that each have headlined their own film. How did this one go so wrong? mother! winds up on this list for being intensely unlikable at its best and practically unwatchable at its worst (which is most of the time). An intriguing first 45 minutes (featuring the wonderfully feline Michelle Pfeiffer, Grease 2) gives way to utter insanity and culminates with a series of stomach churning developments. Movies should always have an element of challenge to them but this one pushes the wrong buttons.

3. Roman J. Israel, Esq – Last year Denzel Washington had two movies that debuted to different receptions (Fences and The Magnificent Seven). In 2017, Washington appeared in but one film, this severely misguided legal drama from writer/director Dan Gilroy (who was at the helm for the superb Nightcrawler in 2014) and the problems it has are too numerous to count. It’s hackneyed plea for social justice reform reeks of half-baked rewrites and last-minute fixes and the supporting characters are but mere stereotypes. Even the reliable Washington is bizarrely off his game here, the Oscar buzz around his performances is mystifying.

2. Wish Upon – even thinking about this one again makes me mad. Best to just tell you it’s horrible and barely coherent and leave it there.

1. The Snowman – unquestionably the poorest film released in 2017 and maybe one of the worst films of the last decade, The Snowman is uniquely terrible. It’s a film that’s awful from almost the first frame and never even makes the effort to better itself. That it’s filled with A-list stars and based off an international bestseller is bad enough, but most of the reasons it’s the worst of the worst is old fashioned bad filmmaking. An embarrassingly heinous film and one that I’m sure will quickly be jettisoned from the resumes of everyone involved. Let this one melt and never be heard from again.

Most Misunderstood: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets – Make no mistake about it, this movie is absolutely bonkers and will likely only appeal to the very (very) open-minded. I’ve found myself in opposition with critics and spoon-fed audiences that have trouble with these outlandish sci-fi yarns (see my lone-wolf praise for John Carter) but I can also understand where their fears come from. I wasn’t prepared to love this one but it was so gaga in the visuals department and so unpretentious in its goal to jolt your senses that I had to give it some well-deserved major kudos.Honorable Mention: Downsizing, The Greatest Showman

Joe’s Humble Pie Award of 2017 (movies that turned out differently than I expected going in): Darkest Hour – True story, but I was really dreading seeing this slice of life biography on Winston Churchill. Knowing that it covered the same period that was depicted so masterfully in Dunkirk, I just couldn’t muster any kind of excitement for it even after hearing that Gary Oldman’s performance as Churchill was an Oscar shoo-in. While it isn’t a perfect film due to some pacing issues, director Joe Wright (Anna Karenina) and Oldman gave audiences a rarity: edge-of-your-seat entertainment with a story anyone that has ever taken a history class was already well-aware of.Honorable Mention: Brad’s Status, Personal Shopper

Click HERE for a full listing of films seen in 2017Total Movies Seen in the Theater: 110Total Movies Seen at Home: 176Grand Total for 2017 (not counting films seen multiple times): 278Where I Saw the Most Movies – Showplace Icon (41!)

Review: If Breathe seems a bit familiar to you, it’s probably because you’ve also seen The Theory of Everything. That film, about the life of Stephen Hawking, has similar themes and won star Eddie Redmayne an Oscar for his miraculous portrayal of a man whose body is failing him with a mind still sharp as a tack. I found that movie to be filled with good performances (co-star Felicty Jones was also Oscar-nominated for Hawking’s strong-willed wife) but lacking in overall emotional heft. While Breathe was always bound to draw comparisons, the surprising news is that it has the same memorable performances and the resonance The Theory of Everything lacked.

Robin Cavendish (Andrew Garfield, The Amazing Spider-Man) is a newlywed living with his pregnant wife Diana (Claire Foy) who contracts polio before he has turned 30. Paralyzed from the neck down and given mere months to live, Robin is resigned to his fate and unable to even look at his infant son. Not content with letting her husband fade away without a fight, Diana becomes his advocate and helps him leave the hospital ward and into their house in the English countryside.

Over the next several decades Robin will defy all expectations for those with his same affliction and become a rare voice for patients with conditions that left them unable to move or enjoy the world like everyone else. With advancements in technology that Robin played a part in helping to design, he is able to live a full life as a husband and a father. There are setbacks along the way and painful realties that have to be dealt with, instances that the film doesn’t totally gloss over but does treat them as speed bumps instead of potholes.

The first film directed by actor and famed motion-capture performer Andy Serkis (Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Breathe looks wonderful and has grand performances as well. Garfield is charming throughout, even when he’s at his depressive worst, and he’s balanced nicely by Foy’s stalwart acting that maintains the dignity in both her character and Garfield’s.

It would be easy to let Breathe slip through your grasp and if you happen to miss it in theaters keep your eyes, ears, and heat open for it to pop up for home consumption.